QUOTE OF THE DAY

National

New Delhi, Oct 11: The CPI-M has urged the government to direct the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe the business dealings of BJP President Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah.

In an editorial titled “Is the BJP President’s Son above Scrutiny?”, CPI-M journal People’s Democracy said: “Jay Shah has become the centre of a case of crony capitalism and questions are being raised about business malfeasance.”

It quoted a report in an online news portal as saying that Jay Shah owned a private limited company, Temple Enterprise Pvt Ltd, which had a revenue of only Rs 50,000 in 2014-15 but which rose to a turnover of Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-16 — a 16,000-fold rise. The company reportedly had unsecured loans of Rs 16.78 crore from a financial services firm. However, in October 2016, the company abruptly wound up its business. Another company, Kusum Finserve Pvt Ltd, was set up in July 2015 to trade in stocks and shares and imports and exports. But it decided to go into the wind energy sector. It raised a loan of Rs 25 crore from a cooperative bank against collateral valued at Rs 7 crore.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist said that though Jay Shah was a private citizen, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal defended him. “The BJP leadership is out in force to deny any wrongdoing on the part of their President’s son.” (IANS)